Reader Question: Faith Like a Child

I was asking my minister questions about why certain things are the way they are in scripture, and he told me to have a more "childlike faith." What did he mean by that? -Jackie
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Thanks for writing in, Jackie. And I am terribly sorry to tell you this, but what he meant was "shut up."

"Faith like a child" is often used in the church as shorthand for a young, idealized, easy faith. A faith that always follows authority, that does as it is told, that asks no questions. Essentially, it is "faith" where one believes precisely as they are told to, and doesn't make life difficult for clergy who maybe, just maybe, were phoning it in and couldn't be bothered to actually think today.

It is also, as it happens, total crap.

The phrase is derived from a Bible passage where a group of children are trying to get to Jesus, and the apostles are shooing them away. Jesus rebukes the disciples, telling them to allow the children to come forward, because one must be like a child to get into the kingdom of heaven.

So a bunch of people have run with that, espousing childlike faith as the ONLY way to be brought into the kingdom. But while that does have some merit, what does NOT have any is their concept of childlike faith as some sort of blank canvas, all accepting, all obeying, total submission state of being. When people use "faith like a child" to mean all of that, I often wonder if they have ever spent any amount of time around real children.

It's utterly ridiculous. We KNOW that. It's an ingrained part of our culture, even. We know that kids don't sit still, don't follow societies rules just because they're the rules. They don't simply accept explanations, they ask WHY. They don't simply accept that they are supposed to sit down and shut up, they will get their needs known. If something feels wrong, they will say so. If something doesn't make sense, they will ask about it. It was a child who noticed that the Emperor didn't have any clothes on, and pointed it out, because they hadn't been brainwashed into lying for the sake of going along with society yet.

I mean, come on. Why do you think the disciples were shooing away the kids at all? Because they were worried that the kids were going to be quiet and submissive all over the place? NO! Because kids are loud, noisy, and ask questions, even when that isn't the sweet and polite thing to do.

You know who DOES do all of that, though? A LOT of adults. People who know societies rules and follow them instinctively. If next Sunday I got up in my pulpit and started preaching utter nonsense, at least some people would go along with it, not because they believed it, but because they have been trained not to question what a pastor says, even if it is clearly and plainly ludicrous. They see, as plain as anyone, that the Emperor isn't wearing any clothes, but are too shy and embarrassed to admit it.

Kids are noisy, brash, and ask questions at the worst possible time. And so we, as grownups, often seek to ignore them, to put them away, or to try to accelerate their training so they will know to just shut up, already. When the disciples tried to do precisely that, Jesus shut them down, and said to bring the children forward. You know what that means?

It means that we should have faith like children. Not quiet, passive, or submissive, but intense, loud, and curious. If something doesn't add up, we should point it out. If something isn't right, we should say so. Kids do it because they haven't learned when it would be societally simpler for them to just be quiet.

We should do it because that, not sweet submissive silence, is what faith really is.